Peregrine Falcons first nested on Derby's Cathedral, England, in 2006. Our Peregrine Project is now run by a partnership between Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derby City Council, Derby Cathedral and the Cathedral Quarter. Here is what's happening in 2017. . .

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Thursday, 20 November 2014

Our Project's web cams have been placed in the TOP TEN BIRD WEB CAMS IN THE UK by the magazine of BBC TV's Countryfile programme.
Considering how many bird cams there are now this is a great accolade and of course, it is all down to Nick Moyes who set them up and has managed them ever since.
The two cameras looking down on the nest platform went up in 2007, with the so called pudding-cam on the ledge above a year later.
Then, in February 2013, Nick fixed a new wide angled camera to the back of the platform. This is the one that gives a view out over Derby:

Another one comes to ground
In 2009, our Derby peregrines raised four young, two males and two females.
One of the females, colour ring 009, was found dead on the roof of a block of flats nearby soon after she had fledged. She'd flown into a smoked glass screen which ran around the edge of the roof and had broken her neck. She was set up by a taxidermist and we use her for educational purposes - see the previous post.
The other female, 010, injured her shoulder beyong repair and has been in the care of Colin Pass and now Dave and Lesley Robinson. Colin called her Cathy.
Last week, one of the two males of the 2009 brood, with colour ring 011, was taken to Lesley and Dave with a slightly drooping wing.
This male was found in Nottingham city in a school playground, unable to fly. Mark Speck from the Notts Wildlife Trust collected him and took him to Lesley and Dave.
He was taken to the vets who decided that, with a bit of luck, the bird might recover after some recuperation.
So, what happened to this male? He's in full adult plumage as you can see from Lesley's photo:

011, a male from 2009, injured last week in Nottingham

There are two possibilities, foul play having been discounted:

First he was chasing prey and flew into some obstacle - a wall or fence perhaps.

Second, he had an aerial battle with another peregrine. This is a real possibility since not so far from where he was found there is a pair on a church. Perhaps he tried to take over?

If he did, he didn't succeed because it now seems that the male at this site, seen this week, also has an orange ring on his left leg!

So, the plot thickens.....how many of our youngsters are trying to get paired up in Nottingham we wonder?
Nick Brown (DWT)

Sunday, 2 November 2014

In 2009 we had two juvenile females that came to grief. One was killed outright by flying into a smoked glass screen on the top of a nearby block of flats. After some time spent in a freezer, we eventually had her set up by a very skilled local taxidermist. It cost us £400.

The taxidermist Chris Orgill admires his handiwork

We use her regularly at events and talks.

The other female was injured to the point where she either had to be put down or kept for the rest of her life in captivity. The damage was to her shoulder and was irrrepairable. We decided to keep her alive mainly becasue we had an offer from someone to look after her.The offer came from Colin Pass, a local falconer and photographer, and he has looked after her right up to last summer. So we owe a big dept of gratitude to Colin for taking such good care of 'Cathy' (he named her after the cathedral....).

Cathy with Colin and youthful admirer, 2010

Now Cathy has passed into the care of Dave and Lesley Robinson and apparently she's settled in well. Dave and lesley run a small willdife hospital, so they are used to looking after birds and other animals. They have applied for and got a licence to keep her from Defra.Now of course she's five years old and in full adult plumage.....